Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0
4
Wow, what an unexpectedly heavy hour.
Much of 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 6 was light on emergency calls but incredibly heavy on the emotional drama.
With installments like this, it’s hard not to lament that we have to say goodbye to this series and these characters, as it simply doesn’t feel like there’s enough time to do so properly.
Owen’s grief and guilt have been something that has lingered over the season thus far, but they haven’t spent much time parsing through most of it.
We could surmise that his attachment to Thunder was mainly due to his not wanting to give up on or lose anything else in his life, just like we’ve seen instances of him getting attached or something triggering him in some way during calls.
His unresolved feelings have swirled around inside, and they’ve only slipped out minutely.
It’s partly because we haven’t seen much of Owen speaking to anyone intimately about certain things.
Aside from Tommy and his grief group therapy, Owen has mostly been trying to sort through his emotions on his own.
In many ways, it’s been great to have a reprieve from some of his usual shenanigans, which can often consume the series.
On the other hand, the series should explore Owen and T.K.’s unusual distance soon.
They feel disconnected from each other’s lives in a way that’s hard to place, and despite having a moment or two within this hour, it was still a prime example of this.
We had no idea that Owen sleepwalked when he was incredibly stressed and carrying heavy things.
It’s a tidbit of information that T.K. revealed to the others after Owen’s awkward sleepwalking episode, which had him practically attacking Mateo and drawing the attention of everyone around.
Everyone was spitballing and attempting to figure out what to do in that situation, as the rest of the group was unfamiliar.
It was odd that T.K. mainly sat there with the others as if he was equally puzzled and unsure what to do in this situation when we learned that not that long after that, he was accustomed to this.
He offered support, which he does a decent job of when he gets screen time, as we saw in 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 1, and he served as another voice to urge his father to bear his soul to a horse.
It was the best method for Owen to clear his conscience about helping his brother die.
After the flashbacks to the night in question, one can understand why Owen has struggled so much since Robert’s death.
Robert made him promise that he’d follow through with helping him die, even if, instinctively, Robert put up a fight, and, of course, he did.
It was a lot to watch Owen place that mask back over his brother’s face while holding his leg down to keep him from struggling.
There was nothing passive about Owen’s role in Robert’s death. He didn’t simply witness his brother die and then clean up after him.
No, he had to put the final nail in his brother’s coffin, which he didn’t want to do but promised to do.
How does one carry that type of heaviness along with the boundless grief?
It put into perspective why Owen insisted on saving Thunder at all costs.
As he stated, he wanted karmic balance, and presumably, no amount of lives he saved on the job balanced that out like saving this horse did. OK, I guess.
Things feel more resonant regarding the emotional impact and the deeper stuff that this brings out in Owen.
However, the means to get there always feel absurd or grating. “Naked Truth” was an hour that struggled to properly balance Lone Star’s fun, quirkiness, and humor with the heavy, emotional, dramatic, darker tones.
On the surface, all one can think about is that Owen’s significant storyline revolves around a horse.
And when they play up things for humor when they’re meant to be more serious or dramatic, it becomes an unusual tonal issue that often feels combative rather than collaborative.
Owen trying to earn Thunder’s trust led to a montage of this horse whooping his ass and Owen refusing to give up while Judd and Marlene traded quips and barbs about the situation.
Then, they provided us with bizarre animal-talking scenes, which thankfully had a point: representing Owen hallucinating.
However, they still felt jarring as a brief comedic moment in an hour that was so overtly dramatic.
But in true Lone Star fashion, just as you feel about some humor, they bring the feelings with familial moments.
It was great seeing the entire gang show up to help rebuild Marlene’s horse barn. They all looked very farmer chic, and Carlos and Paul looked particularly scrumptious.
Evidently, the family bond extends to Marlene, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but she’s still an odd character who feels more like a sassy caricature.
And vibes still feel like the series is planting seeds for a Marlene and Owen pair-up.
That humor and emotional drama blend also extended to Nancy, Tommy, and Mateo.
If this hour doesn’t reveal anything, it’s how criminally underutilized Brianna Baker has been throughout this series.
We never learned much about Nancy and Mateo’s relationship, which is constantly at the fringes of other storylines, characters, and plots.
Pushing them to the forefront only serves as a reminder of how little the series has utilized them, which was frustrating.
But alas, it makes you all the more grateful to have the time with them at all.
Mateo still wildly oscillates between competent and dumb but sweet, and we have more here. But he’s nothing if not deeply in love with Nancy and prepared to support her through absolutely everything in life.
It was Brianna Baker’s hour to shine, and she did.
Showrunner Rashad Raisani spoke to us about how remarkable she does this season, and he’s right.
I’ve never loved Nancy more and felt robbed of all the time we could’ve spent with her on a deeper level.
The hour felt like they dumped a laundry list of information about her character on us for this specific plot, which was overwhelming.
My heart ached for her, hearing about her family’s long history of Breast Cancer, how she lost her mother to it, and the memories and trauma that still lingered about that.
It provided more context for Nancy’s view of Tommy, as she’s always gravitated to her like a woman craving maternal or sisterly energy and was utterly moved that she received it.
It was so quintessentially 9-1-1: Lone Star that her accidentally sending pictures of her boobs around the station could lead to something so quietly devastating and the antithesis of humorous.
Even as we followed Nancy and Mateo’s antics to delete pictures from everyone’s phones (playing into T.K’s ego was especially amusing, and Owen seeing right through the ruse because he probably is no stranger to something similar was worth a chuckle too), there was that heaviness hanging over the moments knowing it would lead to something more painful.
Despite being an H.R. nightmare, something so light and fun led to something so raw and heartbreaking.
These people put their lives on the line every single day for the job, but there’s a choice in that.
They’re prepared and have all the control.
But you don’t feel prepared or in control when something like cancer blindsides you.
There’s no rhyme or reason to get hit with something like it.
One minute, everything’s great, and the next, life pulls the rug from beneath your feet, and a person descends into one of their worst fears imaginable.
Nancy’s fear that she could have cancer was palpable, and nothing was more realistic than the mere fact that she was cognizant of her family history and still so avoidant and maybe not doing her due diligence in keeping abreast of her body and health.
The unknown is so terrifying that you feel it’s better not to think about it all.
Even as a first responder, someone who knows better, it’s easier to deal with other people than oneself.
Following up on that with a bizarre call that resulted in an endearingly sweet man dying from Crush Syndrome was a reality check about speaking out and having a voice.
He could’ve survived if he had simply asked for help when his hand got stuck in the machine instead of spending hours faking the funk so as not to feel embarrassed or inconveniencing someone.
This poor man spent an additional couple of hours with a vending machine on his chest because he didn’t call out for help.
There are no words for how horrific and senseless that is, and knowing what Nancy was going through in that moment made it so much worse.
Real strength is in reaching out when you need it, asking for help when necessary, and embracing one’s humanity and its limits.
Nancy and Tommy’s scene at the doctor’s office was powerful because we’ve seen bits and pieces of this dynamic, especially this season, that reveal their closeness. Still, it’s one of the first times they get to talk so honestly and intimately.
Nancy really is a lot like Tommy, and it’s so great that they had each other at that moment.
And then it all came crashing down when the hour ended with Tommy confiding in Nancy about her own diagnosis.
There was so much to the execution of that scene. Tommy was just getting off the phone but still breezy, pretending everything was fine.
She sat and listened to Nancy because it was ingrained in her to prioritize someone younger whom she cared about; it just radiated maternal energy.
Tommy’s relief collided with processing her reality, and everything crashed down.
Tommy tearfully admitting that she got word of her own prognosis and that it’s bad with the twins giggling in the distance was such a gut punch.
Grace isn’t physically there to comfort Tommy, but she’s someone Tommy would’ve confided in about this.
Tommy had to practice what she preached and fully succumb to all her emotions, trust, and know that Nancy would be there for her.
On the flip side, it was a devastating moment for Nancy, knowing her background of seeing the woman she loved die within a couple of months and now facing that same reality with this woman she loves and admires.
She’s strong enough to support Tommy, but sometimes, you don’t want to have to be that strong.
And Tommy, she’s been through it, hasn’t she?
How much more can this woman take?
It’s a devastating development for this character in the final season.
I’ll even admit to feeling unsettled by it, maybe even triggered.
No doubt Gina Torres will rise to the occasion as always, and it’ll be brutal and emotionally taxing to witness but a beautiful performance regardless.
She and Brianna Baker were fantastic during this hour, riveting during those quieter moments together. We’ll have to see if we get more of that.
I’ll take this as a reminder to perform a self-exam and urge you, gentlefolk, to do the same. Remember, Breast Cancer has no gender.
Over to you, Lone Star Fanatics.
How are you feeling about this final season?
Were you shocked by Tommy’s prognosis, and how do you feel about that?
Did you appreciate spending more time with Nancy?
What are your thoughts on Owen’s final moments with his brother?
How about whatever is going on with him and Marlene? Let’s hear it below.
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